Firstly, here’s how Lush describes this soap on their website: “This luxurious olibanum scented blend of organic jojoba, Fair Trade organic cocoa butter and bergamot oil smells divine and feels even more so. Fresh bergamot and olibanum combine, evoking the joy of freshly laundered sheets and the scent of sweet summer rain, while a sumptuous caress of creamy Fair Trade cocoa butter from small-scale producers in the Dominican Republic leaves skin cool, calm and impossible to resist. To feel silky smooth all over, adorn wet skin in a scoop of this hydrating body conditioner, and rinse away for lasting softness. The generous combination of organic jojoba oil and soft, creamy butters will very carefully hydrate and soothe the skin for when you want extra TLC. What a softy.“

And here’s a few pictures of the soap bar that I bought:

I had tried this product before, so obviously I liked it first time around. The soap as displayed in the shop that I purchased it from had only a few bars being sold in individual slabs like this one, wrapped in this lovely recyclable paper. If you’re familiar with Lush, you may already know that the soap displays generally look something like this:

*Image courtesy of Google Images.

Giant squares or circles of soap (like a soap version of those cheese displays you get!) from which you can request a certain weight / price of soap to be cut. Therefore, prices will vary according to how much soap you request / require, and how accurately the shop assistant can weigh and cut it to size! 120g of the Sultana of Soap is priced at £4.20 (UK Price), and is possibly just slightly smaller than the bar I got.

Now, with regards to the pros and cons of this product, let me start with comparing a particular feature with the previous Lush product that I reviewed – the charity pot. Although I loved the charity pot, one of the main disappointments for me with that product was that it didn’t last very long, and seemed to evaporate from the tub. In contrast, the longevity of the sultana of soap has been one of its best features. I purchased my medium sized bar of the sultana of soap 5 and a half weeks ago, and have been using it every day, and sometimes several times a day. I use it in the shower, to wash my face, and hands, and I use it generously, and yet it is still going strong. Although it is now a lot smaller in size than when I first bought it, I can easily get at least one, if not two more weeks use out of it, using it on a daily basis! So, that is definitely a plus point for me. Even if you do buy a slightly bigger bar, you will be getting your money’s worth as it is quite long lasting.

Some other features of this product are that it lathers very easily and very well, is very soft and soothing to the touch, is very gentle on the skin, and has a light and refreshing scent to it, which comes from the bergamot oil (bergamot is also used in Earl Grey tea, however the scent of the soap is quite gentle and in no way overpowering or too strong).

The product contains dried currants (hence the name, Sultana of Soap!), and dried cranberries which are natural and gentle exfoliators for the skin. As you can see from the photos above of the bar I purchased, the main block of soap was very smooth in appearance, with the dried sultanas and cranberries being on either side of the bar. This means that you will mainly have this natural exfoliator on the outsides, but you can choose to just lather some soap into your hands and use it softly without any exfoliation if you wish, and as the soap gets used up it will become smoother and smoother in texture and appearance.

Depending on your own personal preference and the particular bar you get, you may find a downside to be the pieces of dried currants that fall off. However, if this is an issue for you, you can ask for a ‘middle bit’ of the soap to be cut for you so that you get a smooth bar of soap, and I’m sure the Lush staff will be happy to oblige.

For me, I personally liked the natural and gentle exfoliation, and I didn’t find the ‘falling sultanas’ to be too much of a problem as I kept a small container in the bath / shower, so that I could put them there and save any from going down the drain.

As I mentioned previously, I have very sensitive skin, and I also suffer from eczema, and need to be careful with the products that I use. Lush’s Sultana of Soap, however, has been very gentle and kind to me, I find the scent of the soap relaxing, the lather of the soap quite luxurious and creamy, and I have had absolutely no problems with it aggravating my skin, so much so that I have even used it on my face, which is something I have to be especially careful with in using soaps generally.

So, as for the final verdict, did I find it good value for money, and would I buy it again? Yes, and yes – however, unlike the Charity Pot, I will have to wait a bit longer before needing to replenish this product, as it does last quite a long time, which is a customer’s dream! 🙂 xx

Social media has changed things. For those of us who are young(ish) adults, we may remember a time before the Internet (yes, younglings….there really was such a time! and no, I’m not old 🙂 ), the transition to when the Internet first came to be, and our first intrepid steps into this new world of knowledge at our fingertips. Yes, sometimes that knowledge would be a bit slow to load up on our computer screens, we had dial up modem connections and we also had a bit more patience. These were the days when our first instincts when presented with a school or university paper to write were still to go to the ‘LIBRARY’ (yes, the kind of library with books made of *actual* paper 😉 ) to do our research, and perhaps venture into the strange and novel ‘World Wide Web’ to supplement our findings.

Put in perspective of the length of human history, it is fair to say that the Internet is actually quite a new creation, and hasn’t actually been around for that long. And yet, nowadays, it seems like babies are weaned on the milk of electronic gadgets and gizmos that are rapidly changing and developing, and many school aged children, even very young children, cannot imagine a world, or their lives, without the Internet, and have never experienced such a world.

So although as adults, those of us who were growing up just as the strange language of this mysterious ‘Web’ began to enter our parlance, or who were already ‘fully fledged adults’ as it were, had passed through those fiery adolescent years of wondering if anyone liked us after all, we are still faced with this nervous desire to know whether we are ‘liked’ every time we connect to the web. Or at least, most of us are.

Social media has changed things. In many parts of the world it is absolutely and irreversibly the norm. We no longer see the Internet primarily as a tool to gain knowledge or to supplement education and learning, but as a multifaceted, ubiquitous, all things to all people, source of input, entertainment, news, gossip, stories, celebrities, fact, ‘fake news’, colours, noise, opinions, ideas, creations, inventions, innovations, trends, popularity contests and the seemingly endless list goes on and on and is daily reinvented.

Perhaps those of us who blog seek a quieter and more reflective online space, that the more fast paced social media tools that we may also use such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram (and there my knowledge of such things ends 😉 ) would grant us.

But nonetheless, even the more reflective world of blogging shares the common feature of the ‘like’ facility.

How many of us log in to our Word Press accounts and immediately look at that little bell at the top right of the screen to see whether it has a little red or orange marker to indicate that someone has ‘liked’ or appreciated our content? You can be honest with yourself here.

It is a fascinating little ‘button’ that often makes me smile when I click on it, mainly because it makes me feel more connected to you. I realise that on the other side of this computer screen are real people, with fascinating stories, unique lives and thoughts, who have taken the time to acknowledge and appreciate mine. That is really something special, I think. And truly, the Internet can be a wonderful place, with some truly special people in it.

However, sometimes I wonder whether there is something about that ‘like button’ that triggers an instinct in ourselves to evaluate who we are, our value, and the value of what we have to say by how many ‘likes’ we receive. If we pour our heart and soul into writing something meaningful to us, and it is not noticeably acknowledged, does this in turn impact our self-esteem, even on a subconscious level?

Don’t get me wrong, I think ‘likes’ are wonderful. I genuinely like ‘likes’, and feel more connected with other people online because of them. However, if we find that our attention is unduly drawn towards whether something we have shared on our blogs has been liked or not, if we feel our heart sink if it hasn’t, and if we feel a glimmer of old feelings from childhood and teenage years when our likeability by our peers seemed to be a direct evaluation of our perceived worth, then perhaps it is time to take a step back.

I know that sinking feeling. And I know it has deeper roots than anything Internet related. As a child I was badly bullied for a few years, and I was worthless. I didn’t just feel worthless, but my existence was consumed by this rejection, the not measuring up, not being liked or being actively disliked, of being undesirable, outcast, rejected, neglected, unworthy, broken, hurting, isolated, ignored, overlooked, despised and alone. My broken heart and wounded mind is still being repaired and undergoing a process of transformation. No child, or adult for that matter, deserves to feel that way. And the more I think about it, the more I realise I feel passionately about encouraging other people, as well as myself, to know that although it is lovely, and a natural human desire, to be appreciated, our worth as individuals, as members of this community, and the worth of what we have to say and to share cannot be diminished by the lack of a ‘like’.

You *are* a star irrespective of whether anyone has pressed that star to like your post. You are unique, incredible and fascinating, with stories that no one but you can tell, and a world within a world of thoughts, imagination, hopes, dreams, fears and love. You can change things in everyday small quiet ways and even that in its own way is revolutionary. You are important because you are you. This is our humanity. And sometimes, as wonderful as the Internet is, the online world can rob us of that assurance. We are faced with numbers, targets, statistics, comparisons, and we are encouraged, especially by advertisers to never feel quite good enough – the next achievement, or makeover or purchase will add value to our damaged, inadequate selves.

And yet, despite our brokenness, our mistakes, our evaluations of self and others, we are infinite. And we are important. And even if we are not ‘liked’, we are created for a reason, and we are LOVED.

Now, if you haven’t read my last two blog posts on Budapest, Prague and Vienna, where have you been?! Only joking 🙂 Welcome, and I’m glad you have joined us. Check out my ‘Travel’ tab and you will find the posts there, with an explanation of this little ‘series’ of posts.

So onto today’s instalment! 🙂

Vienna:

Vienna is Austria’s capital city, and is also the country’s largest city. It is located on the east of Austria, along the Danube River.

Vienna has been known as both “The City of Music”, and “The City of Dreams”, due to its cultural legacy of composers and musicians (such as Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Brahms, Bruckner, Haydn, Mahler and Strauss), but also because of the well known psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud who entered the University of Vienna at the age of 17 (although he was born in the Czech Republic).